Penn State’s National Security Institute marked its official launch with an Aug. 28 event that brought University and institute leadership together with representatives from government and industry. Karen Thole, Evan Pugh Professor and the inaugural director of the National Security Institute, outlined the institute’s vision and key areas of focus moving into the first semester of full-capacity research operation.

This summer was a time for travel, research, internships and expanding classroom lessons for many students in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.

Penn State and Battalion Advanced Technology Ltd. have entered into two research agreements worth up to $6 million to develop advanced semiconductor platforms and high-temperature materials that aim to enable next-generation energy, transportation, aerospace and industrial systems while also providing critical capabilities for national security.

Jingzhou Wang, a graduate student in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Penn State, will give the talk “Flood Risk and Housing Markets without Flood Insurance: Evidence from 1930s Pittsburgh,” at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 9, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State's University Park campus.

Rebecca Bussard, postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Geosciences at Penn State, will give the talk “Mitigating Atmospheric Noise in InSAR Time-series Over Volcanic Targets Using a Convolutional Neural Network,” at 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 4, in 117 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building on the University Park campus and via Zoom.

When a piece of glass is compromised, the signs of strain can be unmistakable. But understanding that process of deformation before failure in metals is a different matter and a longstanding scientific question that Darren Pagan, the Norris B. McFarlane Faculty Career Development Professorship in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, hopes to help answer through a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award funded through the U.S. National Science Foundation.

A tedious process of trial and error is normally required to discover ceramic materials that generate electricity under mechanical stress. Known as piezoelectric ceramics, the valuable next-generation materials can be used to replace batteries in powering small electronic devices, like sensors. To streamline the research process, a team led by materials science researchers at Penn State introduced a new framework that combines an existing artificial intelligence (AI) model with human expertise to uncover these materials.

The AI Center of Excellence in Teaching and Learning has awarded 46 grants to Penn State faculty and faculty teams through the inaugural cycle of two instructional innovation grant programs supporting the thoughtful integration of generative artificial intelligence into teaching and learning.

Penn State has selected 16 faculty members for its 2026-27 AI-Aware Faculty Leaders program, a co-sponsored initiative of the AI Center of Excellence in Teaching and Learning and the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence. The faculty-driven program is designed to help departments, colleges and campuses respond thoughtfully and effectively to the opportunities and challenges artificial intelligence presents for teaching and learning.

The second week of the fall semester offers a chance to visit University museums during the fall “Night at the Museums,” planned for 4 to 8 p.m. on Sept. 3. Organized by the Penn State Museum Consortium, the event will once again include the Penn State trolley, which will provide transportation among the various sites at University Park, courtesy of Penn State Outreach.